This blog post about the X-plan has been making the rounds on social media recently. My wife heard about it on the radio. Apparently, they talked about it on The Today Show as well.

Parents have had several different responses. Like any good tool, one size does not fit all. Just because something works really well for one family does not necessarily mean it will work well for yours.

One of the things that stood out to me about the x-plan is that it illustrates the power of preemptive conversation.

As parents, we often dread having difficult conversations before we absolutely have to. I’ve lost count of how many parents have asked me about how and when to have “the talk.” (Spoiler alert: most of the time the answer involves having more than one talk.)

However, sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. If we can begin to cultivate a family culture of having difficult conversations BEFORE something becomes an issue, we communicate to our spouses and children that we love them even more than we love our own comfort. And, like Bert says in his blog post about the x-plan, it can go a long way towards developing trust with our children.

Written By: Eric McClerren, LAPC